Commentary & Community

In his second campaign for the presidency, Sen. Bernie Sanders thinks he has an issue that will attract the votes of millennial voters – student loan debt forgiveness.

Under legislation that Sen. Sanders plans to introduce, nearly all individuals who have taken out student loans would see their debt wiped out. His plan includes:

Complete forgiveness of outstanding debt for any student loans made, guaranteed, or insured by the federal government;

Federal purchase and forgiveness of outstanding private loan debt upon application by the person who incurred the debt;

Providing new student loans through the federal government and capping these loans’ interest rates at 1.88%;

The elimination of tuition at public colleges; and

New subsidies for low-income students attending private colleges.

Under this plan, there would be no limits on eligibility based on family income. To pay for this $2.2 trillion plan, Sen. Sanders proposed a new tax on Wall Street transactions.

Sen. Sanders says that his plan will be Wall Street bailing out the average American. He argues that debt-free education should be something that every American is entitled to have. Opponents note that his plan would benefit the rich as well as the average American, and would be extremely expensive.

Do you think that the federal government should forgive all student loan debt, regardless of the income of the borrowers? Should public universities and colleges be tuition-free?